Landscapers, professional gardeners and amateur gardeners normally trim trees, shrubs and bushes using hedge shears such as loping or pruning shears. These tools consist of a scissor-like device having a pair of opposed blades attached to handles. Generally loping shears having longer handles and the blades are shorter and are intended for cutting through limbs and branches of thicker diameter. Hedge shears are generally used for light trimming of shrubs and foliage. In many situations, the user will find it necessary to attempt to cut and then retrieve a branch which is out of reach of the user or which is entangled with other branches. This procedure requires the user to extend or stretch to the user's full body extension or to grasp the branch so that it may be trimmed. This can be precarious, particularly if the user is working from a ladder. The user may find it necessary to re-position the ladder and equipment which takes time and effort and in the case of professional arborists and landscapers, increases the costs to the landowner.
An alternative is for the user to dismount the ladder and relocate the ladder to a more convenient location which provides better accessibility. All this takes time and may become a tiring process.
Accordingly, there exists a need for shears, either hedge shears or loping shears, which will provide the user with the ability to grasp and pull branches to within the user's reach so they may be cut and retrieved. The following patents relate to various types of prior art tree trimmers.
U.S. Design Pat. Nos. 305,494 and 347,771 both show pole-mounted pruner hooks.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,276 shows a high branch pruning shears having a convex blade, a pull rod and a pull rope. This invention relates to an improved structure for pruning high branches.